


The Festival

by ARSONjST



Series: The Clairvoyant and The Illusionist [10]
Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Because I can, Graphic Violence, Gun Violence, The Festival, Tubbo gets shot, and mindcontrolled, fireworks gone wrong
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:33:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28471701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ARSONjST/pseuds/ARSONjST
Summary: After catching word of fae in the forest, Schlatt announces the festival.
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s)
Series: The Clairvoyant and The Illusionist [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2013421
Comments: 10
Kudos: 58





	The Festival

**Author's Note:**

> I'm warning you now, this is another gory chapter.  
> I'm so sorry Tubbo.

Tommy’s boots squeaked as he stepped on the stone floor placed down for the festival. The small area was bustling with sweet-smelling goods, children running with toys, and parents talking over drinks and food. Tommy’s eyes glanced from person to person excitedly, Wilbur beside him shoved his hands into his jacket pockets and looked around with less wonder than his younger brother. With a soft giggle, Niki sneaks a cookie off a nearby counter and splits it in fourths. Handing one to everyone there, she takes her place walking beside Philza again.

“Remember, guys, be calm.” He says gently, biting into the sweet cookie, “we’re just spectators--”

“They have a dunk tank?!” Tommy shouts and Niki and Wilbur immediately burst into laughter.

“Dear God, why do I put up with you people.” Philza laments through a small grin, “but seriously, be calm, don’t act out of place. Just be fucking normal for once in your lives. Our seats are in the back row all the way to the left, go off and have fun, but be back before the speeches okay?”

Everyone nods, and then quickly disperses.

__

Tommy bit into the cookie he’d won in a minigame, the sweet taste of chocolate and cinnamon filling his mouth as he hummed happily. As he went to lick a bit of the melted chocolate off his finger, someone grabbed his wrist and yanked him back, expertly muffling his shout with their hand and pulling him to the ground.

“Shh, shh, stop,  _ stop _ , oh my god,  _ please _ .” The figure murmured, pressing a hand to his mouth until they could slip around Tommy and show him their face. Tommy bit their hand and the taller figure shrieked.

“Dude! It’s just me!” He whined, sitting back and looking down the alley as if trying to find something.

“You fucken yanked me over here for no reason, Ranboo!” Tommy cried, rubbing his wrist.

“Not for no reason…” Another voice says and Tommy whips around as he scrambles to his feet. It’s been three weeks since he’d last heard that voice, and there he stands. His arms are folded uniformly behind his back and his smile is weak. He looks thin, almost  _ too _ thin, and Tommy feels a streak of anger in his chest.

“Tubbo?!” Tommy cries, bringing his hands up to himself, afraid to reach out. Tubbo nods and laughs, moving forwards and headbutting Tommy’s chest. Tommy laughs, despite the sharp pain in his chest from Tubbos headbutt, and wraps his arms around his friend. The two hold each other for a moment, Tubbo smells like cigarettes, alcohol, and starch, his movements are slow but strong, and he grips Tommy tighter than he ever has before. Tommy smells like cinnamon, fire, and chocolate, his movements are quick and strong, and he holds Tubbo like he’s afraid to hurt him and lose him.

“I-What?” Tommy leans back, holding Tubbo’s shoulders, “god you look sick!”

“I might, to be honest.” Tubbo shrugs, rubbing his temples, “I’ve had a never-ending headache for weeks.”

“That's no good, have you been eating? Or sleeping? Or drinking enough water?” Tommy asks, looking his friend up and down, Tubbo shakes his head and grabs Tommy’s wrists.

“Look, I don’t have much time. Please, just listen, okay? Ranboo and I have been doing some testing. We figured out that Schlatt is doing some sort of mind control and there are two ways to weaken it, distance and time. I just-just have to get away for long enough to get out of his control.” Tubbo rambles, talking with his hands and making odd gestures.

“Tubbo, go to the old cabin. The basement is unlocked and the only thing you’ll need is something to keep warm. All our old stuff is there.”

“The old cabin?” Tubbo asks and Tommy sighs.

“They found a new cabin, it was too dangerous to stay in the old one.”

“Ah.” Tubbo shifts from foot to foot before he nods, “okay.”

“I hate to break up the conversation but Schlatt’s about to make his speech,” Ranboo says, walking back into the alley. Tommy nods and gives Tubbo another hug, nuzzling his face into Tubbo’s neck. He inhales the smell of cigarettes and alcohol once more, hoping that Tubbo’s not the one using them before he pulls back. Tubbo grins and nods, walking over to where Ranboo stands. In a blur, the two vanish into the crowd and Tommy waits a few seconds before he takes his own leave. With quick steps, Tommy’s eyes glance from person to person until he takes a seat next to Philza. His father grins softly and wraps an arm around him, pulling him towards him,

“You seem oddly happy, Tommy, what happened?” Philza asked, brushing some of his hair back from his face.

“I saw Tubbo, he’s okay.” Tommy whispers and Philza nods with a grin.

“I’m glad-”

The crowd cheers, cutting off and hiding what Philza says. He turns, looking over as his eyes scan the stage. Wearing matching suits, Schlatt, Tubbo, and a third guy Tommy hasn’t seen before, walk onto the stage. The crowd continues to applause as Schlatt motions for the two to take their seats. As Schlatt steps up to the mic he raises his hand, and the whole city falls quiet. Only children and babies babble and murmur as their parents softly hush them.

“My citizens of the great Manburg, welcome!” Schlatt shouts and the audience cheers again, “This is the third annual Manburg festival, and don’t I have some news for you! I’ll speak, then our new secretary Tubbo will, then our Vice President Quackity will.

Tommy’s eyes scan the stage trying to count everyone who’s on the stage. Behind Tubbo stand two guards, Sapnap and a guy with white goggles he can’t remember the name of, they try to joke around but a harsh low toned whistle from Technoblade cuts them off. Behind Quackity stands Technoblade and Dream, exchanging glances of soft murmurs of conversation as they glare at the audience.

“First off, I’d like to thank everyone for coming to this festival.” Schlatt clasps his hands together, “and I’d like to give a huge shoutout to our newest Sargeant, Dream, for his recruitment this year!”

The audience cheers and claps, Philza’s grip tightens on Tommy’s shoulder. 

“He managed to recruit our secretary, Tubbo! And he’s been a wonderful addition to our government.” Schlatt smiles, patting Tubbo’s back a little too harshly, shoving him forward by his collar.

“Why don’t you make a speech, Tubbo?” He grins sharply, and Tubbo nods. Taking the podium.

“That bastard. Dream kidnapped him.” Wilbur grumbled, his grip on Niki’s sleeve tightening. Nervously, Philza kept his hold on Tommy’s shoulders, his fingernails cutting the skin without meaning to. Tommy doesn’t mind the grounding.

Schlatt’s grip tightened on Tubbo’s shoulder as the group beneath him murmured in a confusion of what his announcement was. He blinked harshly, the ink on the page in front of Tubbo swirled as he tried to focus. No, this couldn’t be what it said… was it? Was he dreaming? Please this  _ couldn’t  _ be it.

“C'mon kid. Say the announcement.” Schlatt murmured through gritted teeth, standing behind the boy on stage. Quackity tilted his head in confusion, shuffling the papers in his hands, wondering what was taking Tubbo so long.

“As of…” Tubbo shakes, he knows this is going to hurt more coming from him. He can barely keep his anger contained, and he feels tears beginning to pool in his eyes and he feels them start to roll down, “as of today, all fae are to be h-hunted for their wings. The N-northern forest is known to—“

Tubbo shrieks and slams a hand onto the podium, breathing shakily, as the microphone lets out a scream. Schlatt grips his shoulder tighter, tugging his skin with the edge of his fingernail. It was just enough to expose some blood, just enough to control the boy for enough time to get him to speak clearly. That’s all Schlatt needed.

“The Northern forest is known to have fae living within it. Act fast as only ten faes remain, there will be a  _ five million dollar  _ reward for every fae feather brought to the government.” Tubbo blinks and he regains focus, his hands digging into the podium as he gasps and stutters, his irises flicker in a pattern from blue, to gold, to blue. Shaking, he cries and shouts out even as Schlatt takes the microphone away from him.

“Run! Please! Schlatt is going to mind control— gah!” Before he can finish, he’s grabbed by his collar and Schlatt chucks back onto the stage. His skull burns as he hits his head first, his body following after harshly and he whimpers softly, quickly scrambling back away from Schlatt who kicks his side and steps on his legs. The boy lets out some sort of pained shout as he looks around the stage for something to use. On his left he spots a bow and reaches out for it, only to be lifted by his hair and thrown to the front of the stage. Dead front of center where everyone can see him. The boy hits roughly, turning onto his back as the audience watches in horror.

“You think you can break my spells and get away with it, Tubbo? You’ve been working wonderfully these past few weeks and now you’re gonna act up? Huh?” Schlatt grabs his collar, bending down so he’s level with the boy. He grabs two fistfuls, one of fabric, and one of hair and skin.

“Ow!” Tubbo cries, kicking and trying to pry Schlatt away as he is forced to his feet again. He starts to cry while screaming, “Stop! Please!”

Schlatt pushes Tubbo back until his back is flush against the president's chair. The black stone cuts into his back and before Tubbo can go and run towards Techno, who’s taken a few steps close, his eyes trained on a sleek and deadly black weapon, the metal barrel is pointed at his head.

“A gun!” Someone cries in the audience and Tubbo’s eyes widen in shock as he tries to quickly block his body with his arms.

Despite being the closest, Techno freezes up. Guns are illegal in the lands, regardless of what power you hold. Seeing a gun pointed should be enough proof for Technoblade to obliterate the president in one swoop, but he hesitates. Grabbing his crossbow, he loads it but doesn’t move from his position. The two thoughts that run through his mind are to either stop Schlatt or protect Tubbo. But before he can move, he already sees a set of familiar, almost homely, arms wrap around the boy. He doesn’t have time to scream, to tell Philza to move, as two loud bangs echo through the city as it falls into silence for just a beat, then there’s a few screams as people duck and hide with one another. Dream and Sapnap are quick to wrestle the gun out of Schlatt’s hand and they restrain him, George runs off to help the audience clear out of harm's way. The High Chief General offhandedly notes seeing Ant and Karl following him.

“Philza!” Tubbo shouts, cradling the body of his bleeding father, who coughs into his arm, still trying to block Tubbo from the horrors behind him.

“No!” Niki sobs from the audience, drawing Techno’s attention. The angel is trying to run forward, but Wilbur and Eret hold her back by her arms until she falls to her knees hysterically. Wilbur focuses as his arm starts to mold into a sword, he kneels beside her, gripping her dress shirt with his still humanoid hand to keep her still while whispering to her. He keeps his eyes razor-sharp on the stage where Philza hides his face in the crook of Tubbo’s neck, keeping his arms wrapped as tight as he can around the boy as he coughs and sputters. He tries to ignore the heaving of his lungs, the feeling of his stomach twisting, the burning of the newly exposed blood vessels and skin caused by the bullet's path, and the wet, stickiness of the blood that coats his lips. This isn’t his first time dying, he wasn’t even afraid of death, hell, he welcomed it. But dying wasn’t the scary part. It was the visual process and the process of reviving that scared the fae. Techno could almost feel the weight of the necklace around his neck grow as he stared forward, his eyes glaring into the back of Philza’s jacket, he turned and pointed his crossbow at the ram horned president. Keen on keeping him there.

“Philza!” Tubbo screamed as his grip tightens on his father, “Please! No!”

Eret grabs Tommy’s arm and yanks him back, “Fundy! Bring Tommy back to the castle and then get back here, go!”

Fundy grabs Tommy and pulls him back as he starts to run away, some other citizens take their leave at this time, pulling out armor or shields as they run to protect themselves. Fundy shoves Tommy ahead of him, breaking the boy's tearful stare at his father. They don’t have any time to waste. Sam, Ranboo, and a few other state guards draw their weapons pointed at Schlatt.

“Tubbo! Get off the stage!” Eret shouts, pulling a sword out from underneath his cape, blocking Fundy and Tommy’s escape route so no one could follow them through the bushes that led to the paths. The king watches them go and grits his teeth, turning towards the debacle on stage.

Tubbo screamed again, his hands curling in the dark green fabric of Philza’s shirt, he ducked his head forwards and cried, begging for him to be okay. Across the stage, Sapnap was slammed up against the wall by Schlatt, his chest cracking under the pressure of Schlatt’s head ramming into it. The President whipped around, slicing part of Sapnap’s shoulder as he glared at Dream and then charged at him with his head down, grabbing the sword out of his sheath and swinging at Dream. The Sergeant was able to block a good amount of Schlatt’s hits, but he wasn’t fighting offensively, thus he was backed off the stage until he fell into the water below. Growling erupted from Schlatt’s throat as he made his way towards the secretary who clung to his pseudo-father. As the shadow grew over him, Tubbo looked up with tears in his eyes as a hand was rapidly lowered towards him. 

A scream rippled through the crowd and Techno fired, directly at Schlatt. There was no hesitation in his fire. It didn’t matter anymore.

_ And then it suddenly did. _

“Techno!” Someone screamed, and only then did Techno realize what he’d done. Standing before Schlatt was Tubbo, smoke, and embers flicking off his bloodstained uniform, the skin around his left eye burned red and bled from small cracks as bits of the rocket lodged in his skin. Techno grimaces at the sight, but he doesn’t have much time to think before he notices the obvious duller color in the boy's eyes and the ring of blue around his irises.

“Get him, Tubbo,” Schlatt commanded, stepping to the side to grab a fistful of Philza’s hair. His fingers sunk into the blood-stained follicles and he grinned, hoisting the man to his feet and watching as his eyes drained of their fight before speaking in a honey-sweet tone, “Get him, now.”

Techno stuttered, stepping back, he couldn’t do this again. He couldn’t fight his family again. Tubbo pulled out a bow and arrows and aimed, Techno dodged the first few hits and ducked under him, just barely dodging Philza’s swipe of his sword. Niki had managed to get up onto the stage, as Techno noticed her raise a shield in front of him, Wilbur rolled directly into the line of fire and both of the mind-controlled puppets stilled as Schlatt raised a hand, his back facing his enemies. A stupid decision, Techno thought, as he pulled back an arrow in his crossbow.

“You monster!” He screamed at Schlatt and the ram only laughed, his yellow eyes staring at Techno as he grabbed at Philza’s sleeve,

“The true monster is here!” He shouted as he tugged back on the jacket as hard as he could. No one had enough time to react, the black wings furled out. Niki tensed as the small amount of the audience remained tense. There, on stage, stood a fae, one that they could capture. The state guards panicked, knowing they were technically supposed to be keeping Philza’s identity protected, but their own president had just broken his own laws.

“Philza!” Tubbo cries, a note that he’d broken from the spell. Philza slumps onto his knees and Schlatt grins, turning on his heel and walking away, grabbing Tubbo’s sleeve. The boy screams and tries to get back to Philza, the noise he makes shatters everyone's hearts as he’s forced away before the mind-control kicks in and he turns and walks uniformly behind Schlatt.

Wilbur drops, his hands back to normal, he grips at Philza’s face and the fae smiles softly. He grips Wilbur’s wrist and reaches out to Techno, who drops down beside him and gently grabs his hands.

“Dad, dad, it’s going to be okay. You’re going to be okay.” He whispers, gently guiding Philza to lay down on the stage. Wilbur adjusts so he’s adjacent to Techno and the guards silently make a circle around the grieving family to hide their faces as best they can. They even face away. Eret stands outside the circle with Fundy, and the two dip their heads in respect. Eret removing his crown, and Fundy removing his hat.

Niki drops beside him, and Wilbur and Techno stare at her with a slight glimmer in their eyes that quickly fades as she shakes her head, “No… he’s too far gone, I can’t help him now.”

“Boys.” Philza rasps, raising a hand to cup their faces respectively, “I’ll be back before you know it. I promise. It will be okay.”

“I’ll make him pay, Dad. I will.” Techno dips his head and Philza grits his teeth, groaning as the blood flow starts to lessen in his limbs and his arms get hard to hold up.

“Don’t, Techno. Please, no fighting.” His hands finally fall and Niki holds back a sob, biting her lip as she tries to do something to lessen the pain. Techno shakes his head and the family falls silent, Philza’s breaths slowing as his legs slowly start to fade into white smoke. Wilbur begins to hum a slow tune, running his hands through Philza’s hair, before the magic reaches Philza’s chest. They all sit back and watch, letting the man close his eyes as he slowly disappears. Wilbur picks up his hat, which had fallen off at some point, and Techno grabs Philza’s discarded coat. The guards dissemble and rush off to their duties throughout the kingdom, Techno hands the coat to Eret and whispers.

“For Tommy.”

Eret nods and clicks his tongue once and Fundy snaps out of his dissociative state and follows behind Eret. Niki helps Wilbur to his feet and they take their leave, heading towards the temporary stables set for visitors of the festival. Techno heads opposite, towards the state’s barracks. The stage is vacant only ten minutes later, the only evidence of the battle being the blood that soaks and stains into the black wood of the stage.

**Author's Note:**

> if you liked this,, you should totally follow my tumblr (arson-lst) and talk to me there about it.


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